Cruel Britannia

Prime Minister Tony Blair waves before leaving his Downing Street residence for the last time
(Getty Images)

When Tony Blair became Britain’s prime minister a decade ago, his nickname was “Bambi,” a reference to his doe-eyed optimism. Now tarnished by the “low skullduggery” of politics, Blair left office on Wednesday deeply unpopular among his people. Longtime Blair spokesman Alastair Campbell points a finger at the press.

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Comments [3]

Sentence completion questions typically come with a choice of answers and so let me offer an alternative to yours. I believe we suffered from a different kind of ED: Editorial Discretion.

You see, we did ask Alastair Campbell about Iraq. It sounded something like this: Do you regret any of the decisions either you or the Blair government made in the lead-up to war with Iraq?

Campbell said that he didn't regret any policy decisions, that, in fact, Blair would likely "go to the grave" believing Britain made the right call on Iraq and he supported that assessment. He then talked about what he did regret, which made allusion to embittered relations with the press and, in particular, the row with the BBC that led to David Kelly, an MoD official, committing suicide.

The truth is that we didn't feel there was enough context to Campbell's answer and that running it, without fuller detail, would be more confusing than instructive.

Answer: Erectile Dysfunction Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) answer to the question, “If courage was Viagra, when your show did not mention Iraq once in your interview with Alastair Campbell in connection to the 'Hostile' journalism he faced, your show suffered from ____________.”